Terry Grier, superintendent of Houston Independent School District (HISD), will discuss the future of public education Sept. 18 at Rice University as part of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning’s (CERCL) Leadership Lecture Series. The talk is open to the public and will be at 7 p.m. in Keck Hall, Room 100.

Making Houston’s schools the best public schools in the nation has been one of Grier’s goals since he became superintendent of HISD in 2009.

Before coming to HISD, Grier served as the superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District in California and Guilford County Schools in North Carolina.

In San Diego, Grier improved test scores despite a $200 million budget cut, opened the district’s first virtual online high school and increased the number of Advanced Placement exams taken by minority students. In North Carolina, he cut dropout rates in half, doubled the college scholarships available to seniors, tripled minority-student enrollment in Advanced Placement classes and increased the high school graduation rate.

CERCL, a part of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, is a curricular and research initiative that uses innovative research, engaged teaching and other approaches to promote and advance creative models and practices of leadership benefiting new generations of leaders.